Hydraulic lines and fittings are frequently in difficult to reach or access locations and are difficult to work with, particularly by means of ratchet type wrenches, so, in general, open type box wrench, crescent wrenches, vice grip type pliers, and the like, are used and in such cases, the wrench must be removed at the end of each turn and reapplied for each subsequent operation. Moreover, hydraulic lines and fittings are frequently thin walled and made of mallable metal, such as brass and/or aluminum so they are frequently easily damaged by crescent wrenches, vice grip type pliers and box wrenches.
In Bettman and Talkenton U.S. Pat. No. 701,462, there is disclosed a ratchet type wrench which is quite popular today. In the Bettman and Talkenton wrench, a closed jaw member is fixedly fulcrummed or pivotted on a handle member through a clevis with a toothed extension portion of the handle member moving through the clevis on the closed jaw members to engage a nut or work member. It is impossible to work on continuous pipe with the Bettman and Talkenton wrench. Keiser U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,353 discloses a ratcheting jaw for plier type wrenches in which the jaws of the plier type wrench are actuated by a locking toggle mechanism.
Objects of the present invention are to provide an improved ratcheting wrench of the Bettman and Talkenton and Keiser types. A further object of the invention is to enlarge the area of usefulness of wrenches of the Bettmann and Talkenton type. Another object of the invention is to permit use of such wrenches on pipes, tubes, nuts and the like which may be in difficult to access places. A further object of the invention is to provide a ratchet wrench of the Bettmann and Talkenton type which is useful in difficult to access spaces and which is relatively low in manufacturing cost.
The present invention is an improvement over the wrenches of the Bettmann and Talkenton type in that the wrench jaws open to enclose pipes and runs, such as hydraulic, air or other fluid lines, plumbing in houses, as well as nuts, bolts and fittings of all kinds.
According to this invention, a pair of movable jaws, each provided with a clevis extension, are commonly pivotted together with an operating handle having an integral jaw extension which extension moves between the clevis extensions on each movable jaw, respectively. The movable jaws open to permit the wrench to enclose a pipe run, for example and the jaws are locked in a completely closed position preferrably by a toggle linkage extending between link elements, said pair of movable jaws, respectively. When the toggle mechanism is closed, the wrench operates similarly to the Bettman and Talkenton wrench. An enlargement on the handle extension evenly distributes the loading over the work piece and minimize damages to thin wall piping, tubing or the like. A projection is formed on one of the jaw elements to fit between a complementarily shaped notch in the opposing jaw. In one embodiment, the jaws are latched by a simple latch instead of the toggle linkage.